


Sometimes you cry and your only friend is a murderous potato

by prettycoolducks



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Chell cries and GLaDOS tries to comfort her... kinda... in her own way, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I'm not sure what to tag this, but in a nice way, kind of???, more like bullies her into not crying lol, set when they're in old Aperture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27224341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettycoolducks/pseuds/prettycoolducks
Summary: Chell never was much of a crier. Not even when she was a child. At least, not from what she remembered. There wasn’t much time for crying in Aperture, anyway.  It took up time, and caused dehydration, and it distracted you from testing. The few times she had, she’d been careful to find a secluded area where GLaDOS couldn’t see her, so she could curl up like an edgeless safety cube and let out her tears. It usually involved lots of screaming and throwing things. Who was there to judge her anyway, the turrets?
Relationships: Chell & GLaDOS
Comments: 5
Kudos: 53





	Sometimes you cry and your only friend is a murderous potato

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write a Portal fanfic for a while. It's one of, if not my favorite, games of all time. It turns out Portal characters are very difficult to write, I've come to find out, so I wrote this little one shot to try to get used to writing them. I haven't even tried writing Wheatley yet though, haha. Hope you enjoy!

Chell never was much of a crier. Not even when she was a child. At least, not from what she remembered. There wasn’t much time for crying in Aperture, anyway. It took up time, and caused dehydration, and it distracted you from testing. The few times she had, she’d been careful to find a secluded area (most often a room previously occupied by the so-called rat man) where GLaDOS couldn’t see her, (lest she make a snarky comment on how crying was detrimental to the progress of science) so she could curl up like an edgeless safety cube and let out her tears. It usually involved lots of screaming and throwing things. Who was there to judge her anyway, the turrets?

This time, Chell wasn’t so lucky to have a place to hide. Unfortunately, the only robot she’d even started to consider a friend had shoved her down a pit with her old enemy as a potato. Needless to say, she wasn’t doing too well, and she could feel the tears coming. She could feel the lump in her throat, the involuntary tears welling in her eyes, the pit in her stomach. It was only a matter of time before the dam burst, and she needed to find a place to hide, fast. Fortunately, the vast expanses of underground Aperture had plenty of offices and, by default, plenty of hiding spaces as well. Unfortunately, her ex-enemy was currently stabbed through a spike on her portal gun, and she didn’t exactly feel safe leaving it somewhere out of her sight.

Chell trudged on heavy feet into a spare office room, and gingerly set the aperture portal device to the ground next to her. She was pretty sure the devices could survive up to 4000 degrees kelvin, and could probably survive her throwing it to the floor, but she wouldn’t risk breaking her only ticket out of here just for a temper tantrum.

Her tears weren’t really sad tears. They were angry tears mostly, actually. The one robot she trusted in this stupid facility and he literally tried to mash her into the ground. At least GLaDOS wasn’t in control anymore. Not that an idiot sphere with a recent penchant for murder and betrayal was any better. Seriously, what was with this place. She didn’t think she’d met any robot that hadn’t tried to kill her.

She slid down against a long abandoned cabinet so she could curl up on the floor as best she could. She pulled her legs up until she was curled in on herself and dug her nails into her knees until it hurt. If she thought about it, she would’ve realized that she should have probably been getting a move on, but she was currently preoccupied with other thoughts at the moment. Like tremendous self loathing for thinking, for even one second, that she could’ve trusted anyone to help her escape this place other than herself.

She silently screamed and put her head between her knees, trying her best to block everything else out. And it was almost working, until a certain robot spoke up during her in progress break down.

“Listen, I get it. You’re mad, but there’s kind of a moronic idiot controlling my facility and leading us both to our demise, so could we get a move on?”

Well that definitely didn’t make her feel better. If anything, it was a reminder that, despite everything, here she was. Trusting a robot. Again.

She started crying. Well, not even crying, more like full on sobbing. The kind that racked your whole body as you choked for air. The kind that felt like it would never end. No! Why now? Why did she have to show vulnerability in front of one of the robots that had tried to kill her again and again. Not to mention she had a horrible case of sarcasm. Which she would surely put to use now.

“Oh boo hoo. You think your life’s hard? Well I’m a potato, get over it.

Chell paused her sobs long enough to give GLaDOS the meanest glare she could manage. A potato, really? That’s your problem?

“Now I don’t have the ability to turn my head, because I’m a potato, but I can feel you glaring at me. Stop. Seriously.”

Chell could almost laugh at that. Almost. GLaDOS always was pretty witty, even if she used her wit to make death threats and sarcastic remarks about her lack of parents and how fat she was (which didn’t make sense, seeing as her only nutrition for the past however many years had been Aperture nutritional air™ and the occasional potato), but it wasn’t enough to make her laugh now. Instead it just made her sob harder.

“Oh. Great, now she’s sobbing again,” GLaDOS stated, smartly.

It was silent again as Chell’s sobs died down to sniffles and whimpers. She wiped some of her tears away with the back of her hand and looked over at GLaDOS as she spoke again.

“Look I-“ she sighed, seeming extremely frustrated trying to say something sincere. “We’ve both made mistakes in the past. I tried to kill you. You did kill me. Then you killed me again and put an idiot core in charge. We all make mistakes, really. But, you’re strong, I’ll give you that. There’s a reason you’re one of the last humans alive here. Not many humans have even gotten close to killing me. And you’re determined, not to mention really good at killing things, specifically me. So how about you harness that anger, you pick up this portal device, and we’ll March right back up there and take back my facility! Okay? Okay!”

The inspirational speech probably would have sounded cooler with some clapping at the end, or maybe a group cheer. Unfortunately, Chell was mute, and GLaDOS only had a slow clap emitter, but it was good enough for now, even if it did make the speech seem a bit sarcastic. Sad, even.

It was good enough to help Chell sober up enough to uncurl herself from her ball and scoop the portal device up off the ground, GLaDOS with it.

“Oh, thank goodness. I was worried you were going to lie there forever. I’d never forgive you if you let my facility die, you know.” Despite the insensitive words, Chell could sense thinly veiled concern. Thinking about it, GLaDOS was probably the person she knew best. Though “person” was a generous term for her. She was starting to come around, though. It seemed shoving GLaDOS into a potato actually did wonders for her personality. Who knew.

Chell rolled her eyes, not knowing if GLaDOS could even see it, and continued forwards. They had a long trek ahead of them, and there was no more time for tears. She had a facility to save, and not much time to do it.


End file.
